Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 October 2025 to Question 71483 on MHCLG: Government Art Collection, if she will provide this information.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government Art Collection is a working collection, used across government buildings in the UK and the global estate, which means that artworks may change their display location from time to time in response to new display steers and requests.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 81881 on Coinage: Design, whether the (a) Royal Mint Advisory Committee, (b) Sub-Committee on the Selection of Themes and (c) her Department have issued guidance on reflecting diversity in coinage (i) themes and (ii) designs.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Royal Mint Advisory Committee advises the Chancellor of the Exchequer (in her capacity as Master of the Mint) and His Majesty the King on the themes and designs of new coins. Committee members are appointed for their distinguished expertise in areas including design, art, history and heritage, and apply their professional judgement when considering coin themes and designs.
Recommendations to the Master of the Mint and His Majesty the King on coin themes and designs are made collectively by the Committee and Sub-Committee, drawing on the professional judgement and expertise of their members. There is no formal policy on diversity considerations as part of this process.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the absolute numbers of specialist teachers in academies and maintained schools for each subject for each year from Key Stages 1 to 4 inclusive.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on the number of specialist teachers in state-funded secondary mainstream schools is published in the School workforce in England statistical publication. Figures for each subject for each year can be found below. This data has been available since 5 June 2025.
Information on subjects taught is not collected from primary schools.
Headcount of qualified specialist teachers holding a qualification in a related subject by subjects taught and Key Stage, in England for 2024/25:
Subject taught | Key Stage 3 | Key Stage 4 |
All subjects | 156,459 | 166,445 |
All Design and Technology | 8,632 | 6,422 |
All EBacc Subjects | 109,096 | 111,201 |
All Modern Foreign Languages | 9,349 | 9,351 |
All Sciences | 32,134 | 31,908 |
Art & Design | 8,913 | 7,062 |
Biology | 1,270 | 3,878 |
Business Studies | 539 | 4,029 |
Chemistry | 1,007 | 2,982 |
Combined Arts / Humanities / Social Studies | 54 | 28 |
Computer Science | 3,676 | 3,588 |
Design and Technology - Combined | 6,867 | 3,192 |
Design and Technology - Electronics/Systems and Control | 95 | 94 |
Design and Technology - Food Technology | 1,217 | 1,711 |
Design and Technology - Graphics | 250 | 425 |
Design and Technology - Other | 358 | 517 |
Design and Technology - Resistant Materials | 362 | 482 |
Design and Technology - Textiles | 416 | 653 |
Drama | 4,621 | 3,750 |
Engineering | 162 | 885 |
English | 26,792 | 26,624 |
French | 6,669 | 5,281 |
General/Combined Science | 27,488 | 24,455 |
Geography | 9,804 | 9,351 |
German | 1,593 | 1,410 |
History | 12,281 | 11,268 |
ICT | 1,768 | 1,269 |
Mathematics | 23,492 | 23,941 |
Media Studies | 121 | 729 |
Music | 4,962 | 4,173 |
Other Humanities | 249 | 249 |
Other Modern Foreign Language | 778 | 330 |
Other Social Studies | 249 | 1,536 |
Other science | 271 | 672 |
PE/Sports | 18,005 | 17,879 |
Physics | 745 | 2,060 |
Religious Education | 5,729 | 5,417 |
Spanish | 3,782 | 3,427 |
Source: School Workforce Census November 2024.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the press release entitled Cricket domes to bring year-round sport to communities, published on 25 August 2025, what the location will be of the dome in Luton.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
On 25 August, the Government announced £1.5 million investment into two indoor cricket domes in Luton and Farington, to be delivered through the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Luton’s new state-of-the-art indoor cricket dome will be in Lewsey Park and is expected to open in summer 2026, providing world-class indoor practice facilities for cricket, so local players, schools and grassroots clubs can access the sport all year round.
The flexible space will also have the potential to host other sports, such as hockey, tennis and badminton, ensuring as many local people as possible can get active. The new facility will also have a particular focus on encouraging more women and girls into the game ahead of the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup.
Work with the England and Wales Cricket Board is ongoing to monitor the impact and effectiveness of these sites and we’re keen that they benefit as wide a local area as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to provide funding to support the continued operation beyond June 2026 of (1) the National Glass Centre, and (2) the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art; and when they last discussed the future of those galleries with (a) Sunderland City Council, and (b) Sunderland Culture.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is aware of the challenges the National Glass Centre is facing. How these challenges are managed, and decisions about its future, are a matter for the University of Sunderland and its partners, as the owner of the building.
Sunderland Culture is currently in discussion with the University about the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art’s (NGCA) future programme. These talks include exploring how to continue the city-wide approach to displaying the collection, which is currently exhibited in City Hall and The Beam. The University is also looking to lease space within Culture House as a potential permanent home for the NGCA. In addition, Arts Council England (ACE), an arm’s-length body of government, is working with Sunderland Culture and Sunderland City Council to help preserve the city’s glass-making heritage and skills for future generations.
In January 2025 Sunderland Culture was awarded £5 million from the Government’s Cultural Development Fund for Glassworks, a new world class facility for glass making in Sunderland that will connect the city’s 1,350 years of glass-making heritage. ACE delivers the Cultural Development Fund on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Asked by: Lord Freyberg (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the removal of art and design teacher bursaries on the future supply of teachers in creative subjects; and on the wider creative industries skills pipeline.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries are offered to incentivise more applications to ITT courses. The department reviews the bursaries annually to take account of ITT recruitment to date, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. Whether a bursary is offered or not, student trainee teachers can access a tuition fee loan, maintenance loan and additional support dependent on their circumstances, such as the Childcare Grant.
Between the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, postgraduate ITT recruitment for art and design increased by 95%, the largest increase of all subjects. Acceptances for ITT courses starting in the 2025/26 academic year indicate a further improvement. At the same time, demand for art and design trainee teachers has fallen due to this higher ITT recruitment and more favourable teacher retention forecasts. As a result, the postgraduate ITT target in art and design reduced by 38% for courses starting in 2025/26. The department will publish the ITT census for 2025/26 this December.
As part of our Opportunity Mission, we want high-quality arts education for every child in all state funded schools, which is why we announced our intention to launch a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education to deliver excellent continuing professional development for teachers in all the arts subjects, including in art and design.
Asked by: Lord Freyberg (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have removed financial support for Initial Teacher Training bursaries in art and design for the 2026–27 academic year.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Initial teacher training (ITT) bursaries are offered to incentivise more applications to ITT courses. The department reviews the bursaries annually to take account of ITT recruitment to date, forecast economic conditions, and teacher supply need in each subject. Whether a bursary is offered or not, student trainee teachers can access a tuition fee loan, maintenance loan and additional support dependent on their circumstances, such as the Childcare Grant.
Between the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, postgraduate ITT recruitment for art and design increased by 95%, the largest increase of all subjects. Acceptances for ITT courses starting in the 2025/26 academic year indicate a further improvement. At the same time, demand for art and design trainee teachers has fallen due to this higher ITT recruitment and more favourable teacher retention forecasts. As a result, the postgraduate ITT target in art and design reduced by 38% for courses starting in 2025/26. The department will publish the ITT census for 2025/26 this December.
As part of our Opportunity Mission, we want high-quality arts education for every child in all state funded schools, which is why we announced our intention to launch a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education to deliver excellent continuing professional development for teachers in all the arts subjects, including in art and design.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps is she taking to ensure the safety of citizens’ personal data through the proposed digital ID scheme.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Privacy and security are integral to the Government’s proposals. People’s privacy and data will be protected in line with the UK’s data protection laws as well as using state-of-the-art encryption and authentication technology that’s already protecting millions of digital transactions daily - in the same way banking apps do.
The Government will launch a public consultation on the new digital ID by the end of the year, which will seek views on the design, build and delivery of the system. The Government will work closely with expert stakeholders, including the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Cyber Security Centre, to make the programme as effective and secure as possible.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department plans to take to protect people's (a) biometric and (b) personal data in any future digital ID scheme.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Privacy and security are integral to the Government’s proposals. People’s privacy and data will be protected in line with the UK’s data protection laws as well as using state-of-the-art encryption and authentication technology that’s already protecting millions of digital transactions daily - in the same way banking apps do.
The Government will launch a public consultation on the new digital ID by the end of the year, which will seek views on the design, build and delivery of the system. The Government will work closely with expert stakeholders, including the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Cyber Security Centre, to make the programme as effective and secure as possible.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department will provide to support the delivery of (a) art therapy, (b) animal therapy, (c) talking therapies, (d) group therapies and (e) other community-based preventative mental health support provision for residents in the Eastbourne area.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board is responsible for funding decisions relating to the provision of mental health care for people in the Eastbourne area.
Nationally, funding to expand evidence-based NHS Talking Therapies services has been prioritised, with the number of people completing a course of treatment expected to increase by 384,000 by 2028/29.